As the year ends and cold weather is setting, I thought of telling you a winter tale. And finish the year with the thought that, from the beginning of time, people always looked up to the vastness of the sky and tried to find meaning in our existence by creating and sharing stories and bringing everyone together. To listen. As an actor I couldn’t more proud to be human and be able to tell stories in any way I can. Thank you for staying with me this year, your company has been invaluable. See you in 2026!

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

There are several versions of this myth so I’m choosing the one that’s less complicated but have a look for the others . It’s fascinating how over the years , well into the Roman ones, people kept telling this story their own way. Artemis was the goddess of wild nature and hunting. Protector of animals, babies and mothers and connected to purity and youth. Καλλίστω (Callisto),who’s name means ‘beauty', was a nymph and a follower of Artemis and had vowed to stay a virgin. Zeus didn’t seem to care and seduced her by transforming into the god Apollo. When Hera, Zeus’s wife, found out, she turned Καλλίστω into a bear- an ‘άρκτος’ (arktos)-  but before that, Zeus managed to save her unborn child and raise it in secret. When the child turned 15 he went hunting in the woods and there, met with a bear and without knowing it was his mother he was about to aim and kill. That’s when Zeus intervened once again and turned both of them into constellations. Preventing matricide and re-uniting them forever. A big and a small Bear constellation can be seen in the sky and in English they have kept their Latin names, Ursa major and minor. But the word for the Ancient Greek name of the celestial place where a bear can be found was given to the the terrestrial one. ΑΡΚΤΙΚΟΣ/ARCTIC

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Merry Christmas to those celebrating and I hope you’ll have a few restful days those of you who don’t. I was as surprised as you’ll be to find out that this is a combination of Greek words but my hunch was proven right! You see the modern Greek word is slightly different so I never thought to look, until now!  In Ancient Greece one of the most popular breads was one made from barley, oil and sometimes milk . It was called Μάζα (maza) and it looked like a lump of dough. It was named after the infinitive Μασσείν meaning 'to knead by hand'. The word was also used in medicine and  alchemy to describe a blend of substances or elements very close together and that, expanded into describing crowds. Years went by and one place you’d find so many people together was a church. In Latin it came as 'Massa' and dropped the final ‘a’ when the French adopted the word in the 11th century as ‘Μasse’. It came to English two centuries later and meant 'an irregular shaped lump' or a 'crowd'. Now put that on the side. In Hebrew god’s son is the messiah meaning ‘the anointed one’ and that later on was given as a name to Jesus of Nazareth. in Greek, that translates as Χριστός (Christos) and that came to Latin as 'Christus'. Now put the two together and you have a crowd celebrating the anointed one. ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΝΑ/CHRISTMAS

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Today’s word is mostly known through Biblical stories but in the ancient world it was a high valued resin used as medicine and fragrance. And the name in Arabic means ‘bitter’. Trade, brought it to Greece from South Arabia and, they created a whole myth for it. What I find fascinating about this myth is that it’s not about a Greek princess but a Lebanese one and the myth comes probably from Cyprus but it is unclear what came first , an existing myth that was made to fit the origin of the resin or a myth that came with it but was altered to the point that it was made a Greek one? We’ll never know but it lasted through the years as both a story and a cautionary tale. Μύρρα (Myrrah) was a beautiful princess that had the misfortune of falling in love with her own father. For 12 nights her nurse, would lie to the King and say a princess has fallen in love with him but wishes to remain anonymous . So Μύρρα would hide her face and sleep with the King. On the 12th night, he wanted to find out who she was so he held up a torch and to his horror saw his daughter . He chased her with a sword but  she managed to flee to Arabia and turned to the gods for protection for herself, and her unborn child. Aphrodite was not happy this , not happy at all. She didn’t tolerate bonds that didn't honour her so, she turned Μύρρα into a tree and in that form, she gave birth to the most beautiful boy of all times, Adonis. The bitter resin is said to be her tears and her story has been used in one form or another by Ovid, Dante, Mary Shelley, Ted Hughes, Ravel and, the Bible as one of the gifts the Magi brought to new-born Jesus. ΜΥΡΡΑ/MYRRH

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

The countdown to Christmas has begun and It wouldn’t be December if I didn’t enter it with a cold! So I hope my voice is not too distracting and you can enjoy today’s episode! I have to thank my Iranian friend Lanna and her friend Mohsen for all the Farsi words guidance. Herodotus and Xenophon were established historians in Ancient Greece and they both mention a Persian all male caste , well versed in astronomy, science, philosophy and astrology. They were also quite influential in the Persian empire . Their practices involved praying, interpreting omens and they were believed to be the mediators between humans and the divine. Because of their vast knowledge, their title 'Mo’gh' in Greek, was immediately associated with wisdom. It means 'Priest' However, when Christianity took over the word kept its positive meaning in Latin, French and finally English, only to describe the three wise men that, by interpreting a star , travelled all the way from the East to meet a new born King. ΜΑΓΟΙ/MAGI

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]

Hi, thank you all for your ratings and reviews so far, I love reading what you think and it does help other people find us so please, keep them coming. If you have any questions or comments about what you hear in this podcast you can email us at [email protected] and you can also follow us on Instagram at @yourgreeksunday . Before we move on with today’s word I’d like to correct myself on last week’s episode. Of course Apollo wasn’t Cyclops’s dad, it was Poseidon. I mix up my Olympians sometimes.  Oops! On with today’s word!

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

The ancient Greeks had three words for 'glory'.  All meaning a different kind of fame. We’ll stick to the one that before it got really popular in English in the 1920s it was university slang among students of the classics in the late 18th century and it just meant ‘prestige’. In ancient Greek it meant praise given to someone for an achievement in battle, never outside of one.  A praise for something one accomplished themselves not as part of an army, not the one to have won the war and definitely not the one to reflect the entire nation . A simple praise in battle was called ΚΥΔΟΣ/KUDOS 

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Following up from last week’s episode on giants and fossils here’s another word that comes  with a mythical creature attached. When ancient Greeks found animal fossils that looked enormous, they called them ‘Giants’ but, when they found enormous fossils that had a hole in the middle of their scull they believed them to be a special type of giant. They named them Κύκλωπες (cyclops) meaning ‘central  eye’. The last giant of his kind and son of Apollo was, Πολύφημος (Polyphemus) meaning, 'the famous one’ and in Homer’s Odyssey, he was blinded by Odysseus when the latter was kept prisoner in the giant’s island. For that ,Apollo punished Odysseus by making his journey home, much, much, much, much longer. It’s worth saying here that, many times a description of a creature from Phoenician merchants or creatures seen while fighting with foreign armies, would inspire stories and myths to explain things. Ivory in Ancient Greece wasn’t uncommon but it wasn’t for everyone. The statue of Athena inside the Parthenon was made of ivory and gold and that combination was generally used for high and religious art. Around the time of Alexander the Great the Greek name for ivory was applied, for the first time, to the animal and not just the material. The word came to Latin as ‘Elephantus’ then old French ‘olifant’, old English ‘Elpend’ and in modern English, keeping the Latin spelling, ΕLEFAS/ELEPHANT 

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]

Hello , if you like what you hear in this podcast leave us a review on the platform of your choice. It helps other people find us and I love reading what you think! 

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

We now know that ancient civilisations created some of their myths based on what surrounded them but was at the time incomprehensible. We don’t exactly know how the myths evolved or got embellished with time but sometimes there are clear and verified links. For the next two episodes I’m going to talk to you about two different words that come from the same fact. Prehistoric fossils found in Ancient Greece.  Nobody could explain them and they looked… bizarre! Γαία (Gaia) was the name for the goddess Earth. Among her children were  100 , of enormous height and strength.  With scaled bodies and lizard tails who were covered in hair. looked like humans and they were mortal. They were divided in clans and each had special extra powers. Including the lightning power they gifted Zeus. Most of them died in the Great War between them and the Olympian gods and there are depictions of that war on ancient vases and  sculptures.  Their name means ‘of the earth’ but in English it came through Latin and old French in the 1300s and by then it had turned into an adjective ΓΙΓΑΝΤΙΟΣ/GIGANTIC 

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

‘Remember remember the 5th of November…’ That’s how the rhyme goes in the UK. On November 5th 1605 a company of Catholic men was arrested for treason and hanged for attempting to blow up the House of Lords of the Protestant monarchy. The failure of The Gunpowder Plot as it’s known is celebrated to this day with bonfires and fireworks. Guy Fawkes one of the members of the plot, has been turned into an anti-establishment hero through movies and iconography but mainly, through a grave misunderstanding of history. He really  was nothing more than a religious fanatic against a religiously fanatic monarchy. It's worth reading the story in full and understanding the behaviours of both religious groups at the time. Now, that misunderstanding leads us to an even older misunderstood word that is often assigned to guy Fawkes too. The word came  to England through France in the 1600s and wasn’t always a pleasant term until Samuel Johnson put it in a dictionary, in 1755, cementing it as a virtue. Πατήρ (patir) in Ancient Greek and Πατέρας (pateras ) in modern means ‘father’. Πατρίδα (patrida) means ‘fatherland’. The ancient Greeks had city -states, Πόλεις (polis) so anyone who was a free citizen from the same city was a  Συμπολίτης (sympolitis) unless they were a slave or a group of foreigners from another country entirely . They, were called ΠΑΤΡΙΩΤΕΣ/PATRIOTS 

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

I hope you had an amazing Halloween! I’m going to do one last spooky word for you today.  Hades , the god of the underworld was married to Persephone (that’s a whole other can of worms for the Greek gods and, a future episode for us) but like his brother Zeus, Hades wasn’t very faithful. Persephone caught him cheating with a nymph of the underworld. And in the myth, there’s no indication that she punished him for it. The nymph however, had a terrible fate. She was dragged by Persephone on top of a mountain and crushed to dust in the ground. But then, and some say that was Hades’ doing, the air was filled with a scent of freshness and a small green plant started growing.  A plant that, to this day , grows on the mountains of Greece and has been used to heal , refresh and restore our bodies . It has the nymph‘s name and it was brought to England by the Romans during their occupation. Μίνθη (minthi) in Ancient Greek and in modern ΜΕΝΤΑ/MINT

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]

Before we begin , a big thank you to everyone who left a review and rated our podcast recently our audience in growing fast and your words matter! If you haven’t done yet , it’s never too late ! As always, I love reading what you think. 

(piano music) Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

It’s almost time and we’ve already started celebrating  so, Happy Halloween  let the spooky words in!

Ancient Greeks worshiped all their gods equally. But they feared the underworld most and they made sure  to appease its gods .So whilst the Olympian Gods where getting drops of wine and prayers multiple times a day, the underworld was getting a big jug quickly poured directly into the ground which you slammed so you’d have their attention.  Honey, wine, milk and water, always at night and only on important occasions. Funerals, religious festivals, spirit summonings, plagues and of course, important state deals. Also, you were obligated to have a sip of the wine offered to the Olympian gods but you should never drink the offering to the dead. What I love about the Ancient Greek gods is that sometimes  they appear to be a concept rather than supernatural beings.  Gaia is the name of the goddess earth when referring to things above the ground. In our world.  Chthonia is her name below it and everything related to that. The word appears in English (from Latin) in the early 1880’s in the writings of Charles Francis Keary . ΧΘΟΝΙΟ/CHTHONIC 

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]